Verifying an exchange address before you send

Sending cryptocurrency to an exchange address is not like sending an email. There is no "undo." The transaction either settles on the blockchain, or it does not. If it settles but lands at the wrong address, the funds are gone. If it settles but the exchange does not credit you, the problem becomes a support ticket that may take days or weeks to resolve. You can avoid most of these outcomes by running a few checks before you hit send.

Let us walk through what actually happens when you swap or send funds through an intermediary site. You send coins from your wallet to an address that the site provides. That address belongs either to a smart contract or to a custodial wallet controlled by the operator. The site then forwards equivalent value to your destination, minus a fee. The forward leg may happen instantly, after a set number of confirmations, or only after the operator manually approves it. Understanding which model you are dealing with tells you what can go wrong and what cannot be undone.

How to check if a swap site is connected to a known scam before you use it. This is the first filter. Search the site's domain name plus the words "scam" or "trustpilot" or "reddit." Look for reports from multiple accounts, not one angry post. Check the site's registration date. A site registered three weeks ago with no social footprint is a red flag. Block explorers and chain analysis tools do not flag scam addresses automatically, but community-run blacklists sometimes do. If you see the same address reported on multiple warning lists, do not send to it.

How to tell if a swap provider is using a smart contract or a custodial wallet. The receiving address tells you. A smart contract address starts with a specific pattern depending on the chain - on Ethereum it is a contract, on Solana it is a program ID. You can verify this on a block explorer. If the address is a regular wallet address (externally owned account), the operator holds the keys. That means they can move your funds manually, which introduces counterparty risk. If the address is a contract, the swap logic is deterministic. The contract will either execute the swap or return your funds according to its code. Neither model is inherently safer, but you should know which one you are trusting.

How to read a swap transaction on a block explorer to find out where your funds went. After you send, open the transaction hash on the relevant block explorer. Look at the "to" field. That is the address that received your coins. Then look at the internal transactions or the event logs. If the swap completed, you should see a transfer out from that same address to your destination. If you see only an incoming transfer and no outgoing, the swap stalled. If the outgoing went to an address you do not recognize, the operator may have forwarded your funds to a different exchange or wallet. Screenshot the entire transaction page, including the timestamp and all transfers.

What details to screenshot before you hit send on any swap. Capture the full exchange order page showing the deposit address, the amount you are sending, the expected receive amount, and the order ID if one exists. Capture your wallet's send confirmation screen showing the same address and amount. Capture the transaction broadcast confirmation from your wallet. These three screenshots give a support team the minimum information needed to trace a swap. Without them, you are asking someone to find a needle in a blockchain haystack.

How to test a deposit address with a tiny amount before sending the full swap. Send a small fraction of the total - enough to cover network fees on both sides, but small enough that losing it would not hurt. Wait for that test transaction to confirm and for the exchange or swap site to credit the test amount. If the test arrives and the site displays the correct value, send the remainder. If the test fails to arrive, you saved yourself a large loss. Some swap sites explicitly recommend this. Some do not. Do it anyway.

What an exchange support team actually needs from you to trace a missing swap. They need the transaction hash, the sending address, the receiving address shown on the order page, the exact amount sent, and the timestamp. They also need proof that the order existed: a screenshot of the order page with the ID. Without the order ID, they have no record on their side that you initiated a swap. If the swap site does not generate order IDs, that is itself a warning.

What to do when a swap completes on the blockchain but the exchange shows nothing. First, confirm that the transaction settled. Check the block explorer. If the transaction is confirmed and the funds arrived at the address you were given, the problem is on the exchange side. Wait. Some exchanges credit after a fixed number of confirmations, not after the first block. If it still does not appear after twice the expected confirmations, contact support with your screenshots. Do not send additional funds. Do not click "retry" or "cancel" - those buttons sometimes resubmit the same transaction.

What to do when a swap fails and the refund arrives as a token you do not recognize. This happens when a swap site refunds you in a wrapped version of the original coin or in a different token entirely. The token may have no liquidity. It may be a dust token with no real value. Check the token contract address on the block explorer. If it is not the original asset, you may need to swap it back yourself, which costs network fees. If the refund token is a custom contract that only the swap site controls, you may never be able to trade it. In that case, your only recourse is support. Include the transaction hash and the token contract address.

No check is foolproof. A site can pass all of these tests and still fail to deliver. But running these checks before you send reduces the number of ways a swap can go wrong. And if it does go wrong, the screenshots and transaction data you collected are what separates a solvable problem from a permanent loss.